Re-saw advice?

[Phil Gabbard]

A couple of years ago I picked-up two pretty good sized primary limbs off of a neighbor's mesquite tree (with his permission!) after Hurricane Rita blew through here. They have been air-drying in my garage ever since, with the bark on and ends Anchor Seal-ed. They are each about 9' long, and 14" and 11" on the big ends, and weigh a ton (almost). Both have a 5-10 degree crook about midway. I want to re-saw them in the next few weeks and am looking for some experienced advice on the best way to approach it. I know trunk wood would have been preferable, but, hey, it's free, and I can only eat so much mesquite-smoked barbecue;). Maybe I can get the trunk after the NEXT hurricane.

My thought has been to cut each in half centered on the crook, and then slice them with the remaining crook pointing up. I'll fabricate a sled similar to one I saw in George V's article in American Woodworker awhile back. Any advice or better approaches? Best way to sticker in order to minimize warpage? I plan on finishing to 1" or 3/4" for some furniture. This is my first resaw, and I'm a little nervous.

Thanks!

[Pete Bradley]

The important thing is to get the odd-shaped log to go straight through the machine without twisting or rolling. I use a sled which is just a sheet of plywood with a rail attached to the underside that slides in the miter slot. Here's a picture:

http://home.comcast.net/~bradlzz/bandsaw_mythbusters.jpg (http://home.comcast.net/%7Ebradlzz/bandsaw_mythbusters.jpg)

Keep a wooden wedge handy as you may need it to hold the kerf open as you get deeper into the cut.

As always, resawing logs involves a lot of exposed band and potentially dangerous results if the log moves, the saw tips over, or something else goes wrong. Think it through before you start and don't take shortcuts.

Pete

[Mike Cutler]

Phil

For fun, and the experience, I resawed a hickory log about the same size as the log you're getting ready to do.

I made an infeed and an outfeed table the exact height of my bandsaw,and routed grooves into them that matched the miter slides in the bandsaw table. Both tables were the length of a sheet of MDF and built on 2x4 frames.( I still use them for lots of stuff, so they didn't go to waste) It's amazing how heavy a log is.

I made a sled to hold the wood still and then pushed it through. Once you get two surface at 90 degrees to each other you can use the fence, and rip slabs. Buy a few packs of door shims at Home Depot, they come in handy for wedges.
Wax the bottom of the sled and the tables very well. Friction is your enemy pushing the wood through the blade. You want a nice steady, continuous pressure and feedrate.
From personal experience I wouldn't put the log through with either end angled up. The bandsaw will try to push the log down and the length of the unsupported log acts a lever. This was a negative experience for me.

I would also try to send the log through in it's entire length,and not cut it in the middle. You never know what the grain and figure will be like and it would be a shame to lose options down the line.

If you have a big enough bandsaw, resawing wood from logs is cool. I wouldn't want to do it every day, but it's nice to know that I can.

[Dennis Lopeman]

I've done this myself recently... i picked up a couple pointers... you may already know these from experience:



use a blade with 3 to 4 teeth per inch
slow down the blade speed (I have a ShopSmith, so I have that option and don't know if "real" bandsaws do)
infeed outfeed tables are VERY good to have
using a fence was real important... I didn't see that in the sled picture posted by Pete... maybe it's not needed... I had good luck with it - but it wasn't but about 3 inches thick.
HOpe that helps. Making your own wood is cool!!! I just finished some thresholds for the house with oak I cut in my yard... and it looks sooooo awesome. I'm very proud. Next step is building a sjoberg/lei-neilsen type workbench!!! (yup - I did some thresholds and now I think i'm ready for the big leagues!!!)

[Pete Bradley]

using a fence was real important... I didn't see that in the sled picture posted by Pete...



Good point. Let me clarify.

You use either the sled or the fence, but if you have no flat surfaces, you have to start with the sled.

Once you've made one cut with the sled, you can put that flat on the sled to make a second flat at 90 degrees to it. Once you have that, you can cut against the fence until the bottom flat is used up. I've found that I can even get veneer slices with the sled though, so it's really personal preference which to go with.

For a fence, I use one I made from MDF. I screwed two pieces together at right angles, clamped the bottom to the table, then carefully clamped the vertical part perfectly square. I then epoxied in triangles to hold it there. It's lasted very well and is incredibly useful.

Pete

[Dave Tinley]

Phil-
One other option you may want to concider depending on how many logs you have. Take them up to M&G in Huntsville and let them slice em for ya. Might not cost much. Just throwing an idea out there.

Oh BTW- mesquite has one of the lowest warpage of most all hard woods. Not saying it wont, but it is a lot less prone to then other species.

[Steve Nouis]

If you lived in central MN I'd saw them up on the mill for $20 Steve

[Dell Littlefield]

I had a small mesquite limb and resawed it last year. This piece was too small to present the challenges of handling that you face so I can't advise on that but be prepared to do a lot of filling on the lumber. There will be a lot of cracks and voids in the limbs.

[Phil Gabbard]

Thanks everyone for the information. With regard to M&G, I've been up there before and bought a couple of mantels from them (spalted Maple and Red Cedar). Nice guys, and a great, peaceful spot out in the country! On the fence/sled idea, right now I'm leaning toward halving the logs with a sled and then setting up a tall, strong fence (good idea, Pete) to mill the rest to 1" thickness to allow for some warpage (even though as Dave says it's pretty stable). My biggest concern with my 'halving-then-bare- fence' approach is that even though the limbs are pretty smooth, the workpiece could get a little whippy with the crook (even though I'll take someone's advice to feed crook-down). The blade has got to represent an awful lot of force while cutting through over 10" of hard wood... I like the idea of infeed/outfeed tables, and am initially considering a two-sided torsion box affair made out of 3/4" birch ply, say 3" thick all together: on one side I can place several ball bearing rollers to reduce friction with the sled, and flip it over when feeding without the sled to use the bare ply side for support.

I'll probably let it dry stickered for a few months even though the whole limbs have been in a hot shop for 2 years. We'll see how it goes!